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Report: Whistle-Blower to Testify Against NSA
Former Employee Alleges Illegal Intelligence was Conducted
By ABC News
01/05/06 "ABC" -- -- A former official at the supersecret National
Security Agency is reportedly prepared to tell Congress what really
went on in the domestic-spying program that was revealed last month.
The Washington Times reported today that Russ Tice, who was fired
from the NSA last year, has written and told House and Senate
intelligence committees that he knows the government undertook
electronic surveillance without obtaining permission from a special
secret court.
In letters to the committee, Tice said that "I intend to report to
Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while
I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and
with the Defense Intelligence Agency."
President Bush, while acknowledging that the special eavesdropping
program exists, said it is needed to track down international
terrorists through phone numbers linked to al Qaeda. Vice President
Dick Cheney said on Wednesday that if the program had been in place
before the Sept. 11 attacks, the plane assault on the Pentagon might
have been avoided. The Justice Department said that after the 9/11
attacks, Congress granted special powers to the president who then
"legally" ordered the spying on communications coming into and out
of the United States.
The eavesdropping was first reported by The New York Times. The
Justice Department has launched an investigation into who revealed
the operation to the newspaper. In his Dec. 16 letters to Congress,
Tice said that under a 1998 whistle-blower protection law, he can
testify legally about intelligence operations without facing
punishment.
The New York Times story came on the same day that Tice sent the
letters to the intelligence committee chairmen. Congress is expected
to hold hearings soon on whether the eavesdropping violated the
right to privacy.
ABC News' John Cochran contributed to this report.
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